A couple of days ago, I saw a post from Hivebuzz regarding regular content creators and the new year-long commitment badge. I have always prided myself on the notion of quality before quantity. I am also human, so there have been cases where I posted something I was not happy with. On other occasions, I wrote something that I only afterward realized how good it was. And this is where I find the most potential for Hive in my own life: it forces me to sit down and write. And from that writing, something powerful can grow. In fact, I posted the outline for an article I wrote without realizing at that moment it would turn into an academic article. The article is currently being peer-reviewed, and if it gets published, the intellectual property of that work finds its seeds on Hive. In other words, because of Hive, the article originated. Without Hive I do not think the article would have seen the light of day.

And this is what I want to commit myself to for the coming year: to post quality work in the areas of, amongst others, philosophy, photography, art, recipe development, herbalism, and education for a whole year. I do not want the quality of my content to suffer, but I also want my creative side to flourish. The year 2023 is going to be a very rough year. I am teaching a philosophy module to undergraduate students, my Ph.D. dissertation needs to be completed at the end of the year, I have various academic articles I need to write, I have a girlfriend and family commitments, the list goes on. But I want to commit myself to write exclusively on Hive. One of the most important reasons being:

from my work on Hive, various other works spring to life.

Posting for a Year

I have a couple of requirements for myself in doing this challenge.

1. Quality vs. Quantity

One cannot run on full power without burning out at some point. But I am young and I think I am capable of a lot of things. I am probably going to burn out or fail the challenge. But the process is worth trying. One of the most important requirements for me is to produce the same quality work I have been posting for the last couple of years.

Therefore, my first rule is to never waver quality in the name of quantity.

It would be counterproductive after all. My Ph.D. will suffer, my creative work will suffer, the time I could have spent with my family will suffer, and my own work I have produced over the years on Hive will suffer.

2. It is not Just About Posting but Engaging with Other Authors

One of the commentators on the original post linked above by Hivebuzz noted that the same should go for commenting on others' work (i.e., real engagement) and not just about posting content. That said, real engagement takes time and mental power. Again, the potential problem of burnout is real. But real engagement with others is very important for me as well, even though I do not always have the time for it.

Thus, my second rule is to always engage with others just as much as I would like for them to engage with my work.

You give what you receive, one might state.

3. Money Corrupts Even the Most Ethical

Hive, in one sense, proposes to monetize one's content and even one's engagement (via voting and so on). Many people have left Hive because they only did it for the money. I have been on the platform for many years, and there is always the monetary component in my mind when I post on Hive. But I have never been on Hive for the monetary reason. Yes, it is nice to see that your content has made some money. And I am a student who gets paid ad hoc for the work I do at the university. (The money they pay me to give classes is a nice to have, but I am doing it for the exposure and experience and not the money. I am lucky to have a family that lets me stay free of rent in exchange for cooking and doing gardenwork for them.)

Thus, the third rule is I am not doing this for the money.

Yes, money can buy you nice things, and money can help when things get tough, and drinking a drink with friends is not cheap. But that is not the reason I am here on Hive.

4. Helping Others is Helping Yourself: Building a Community

Linked to the monetary aspect, I am in a unique position being here on Hive for so long and having been able to make a small "nest" for myself. But this allows me to help others get onto the platform. I have helped my girlfriend (@urban.scout) to get on the platform, delegating some HP to her so that she can find her footing, and helping her understand Hive. I know how I struggled at the beginning of my journey on Hive. I want to help others who are also creative and content creators to get onto the platform to share their work and for them to grow in the Hive community.

My fourth rule is to help others get onto Hive, literally having my skin in the game.

This rule, however, can potentially be loaded with a lot of responsibility that I am not sure I can carry. But this can be another area in which I can grow.

What to Expect

Dear reader, if you are still here and reading, I want to briefly write about what you can expect. This is more for myself, but it is nice to have it in writing in some form to look back at when the year is done.

1. Books, Articles, and Many Musings

Part of being a student in philosophy means reading a lot. By merely reading, you kind of skip certain parts and you forget most parts. But by writing and reading, you actually learn so much more. Many moons ago, I made a post about the APP I am using to make notes, Obsidian note taking Application. My notes are already in Markdown format, so I am planning on sharing many more of my philosophy notes, either in #philosophy or in the Education community. I think I could make a fourth rule, but this one has some caveats linked to it. But the idea is to share, disseminate, and create knowledge here on Hive. As mentioned above, Hive for me is a place where I can share the "seeds" of my work. I actualize them here. Due to many reasons, copyright being one, I can obviously not share the actual work here. But I can write it in a plain English so that more people can understand it. Academic jargon is a necessary evil.

2. Short Stories, Poetry, and Art

Being creative takes time and sometimes it happens out of the blue with no warning. But having a creative outlet, like Hive, helps a lot. I only post my creative work on Hive. I have no other social media accounts where I post my work. (I have social media accounts, but I never post my creative or any other work there.) For the last couple of years, I have only posted on Hive.

But I have severely neglected this aspect in my life. I have tried to keep up with some form of creative writing and drawings, but not enough to soothe my creative conscious. I need to do more. And this is, again, where Hive is perfect. Plus, I have my girlfriend now on Hive. So we are going to have some collaborations and mutual creative writings planned. (One idea, for example, is that we want to write a short story anthology on Hive.)

3. Recipe Development and Cooking

I love cooking and developing recipes. Plus, my mother wants all of my recipes. I have been toying with the idea of writing a recipe book on Hive. Complete with an index and everything.

This also links with the point below about herbalism. But before turning to the next point, I also want to explore other peoples' recipes, here on Hive but more importantly traditional recipes from various cultures here in South Africa. I have also toyed with the idea of doing quasi-interviews with various people via cooking recipes they provide for me. Many traditional South African recipes go uncooked and die out because (1) people do not write them down or they stop cooking them or (2) ingredients go out of fashion. For example, in traditional "waterblommetjiebredie" waterblommetjies and suurtjies are used, but you cannot buy suurtjies (normally a local variety of yellow wood sorrel) and only a select few places still sell waterblommetjies (water flowers; Aponogeton distachyos). What better place to share these recipes with traditional ingredients I can grow in the garden (like suurtjies/yellow wood sorrel) than on Hive?

4. Doing Research as a Quasi-Herbalist

The only reason why I have ventured into the realm of herbs and herbalism is because of Hive. Starting with the start of The Herbal Hive community, I have ventured into terrains I would not have dreamt about.

In the coming weeks, I will share, for example, knowledge about the local spekboom and various things I do with it. Hive thus gives me the opportunity to further my own knowledge, but to also share this knowledge with others. We are living in an information overload era, and I love to summarise things mixed with my own experiences and exposures to the information and growing process, and so on. But I also want to explore knowledge that is currently dying out because of modern practices. People forget when there is no one to help them remember.

5. Furthering my Photography Series

I have done so many photography-related things on Hive. Before turning to Hive, I almost wanted to stop doing photography in total. Now I have a reason to further my photography work. And my series I have started! And to make new ones.

6. Travel and Eat and Travel and Drink

Another thing I have learned on Hive is writing travel-related posts. This also allows me to go to different places, eat different foods, and drink different drinks.

7. Becoming...

Life is not fixed. Following two prominent philosophers (that you will read about in future posts on philosophy!), one is never being but always becoming. So, I have no idea what will also come up in the new year! I might follow the same routes, but I might turn to new ones as well. Cheers then on becoming and not being stuck!

So Many Words, To The End

This post has turned out to be a lot lengthier than I thought. Dear reader, I might have lost you a long time ago and my consciousness is the only one left here. But this is not the end. This is the beginning of something new I have no idea how it will go. I will try to keep up the hard work, I will try to post every day. I want to become more active on the platform by posting and engaging and helping others get on Hive.

I also hope to inspire others and to get my own work done in this year. I have so much to do, so many things to write, and I want Hive to be the seed of everything I do. Because the stuff that I have done on here has changed my life in ways that I have never thought it would. And I hope that in this year it will happen an infinite amount of times again.

(As always, the writings are my own, and the photography is also my own.)